Mayor Lumumba of Jackson, Miss., dies at 66

9:28 AM,
Feb. 26, 2014

Chokwe Lumumba, seen as a member of the Jackson (Miss.) City Council, was elected mayor of the city in June 2013. Lumumba, 66, and a native of Detroit, Mich., died of apparent heart failure Tuesday afternoon at St. Dominic Hospital in Jackson.

Written by

Ruth Ingram
Gannett

JACKSON, Miss. - Shock and grief enveloped the city of Jackson on Tuesday as friends and coworkers of Mayor Chokwe Lumumba dealt with the death of a man they described as a passionate leader who had positioned the city on "the verge of greatness."

"It's a tragedy for Jackson. We lost a really good man," said former Ward 2 City Councilman Louis Armstrong, now the city's deputy director for human and cultural services.

Lumumba, 66, died of apparent heart failure Tuesday afternoon at St. Dominic Hospital in Jackson. ...